My artist journey started at college where I began to look at how different artist had tackled the idea of beauty in their own way. I began to look at the artist Yves Klein, his body prints really fascinated me. I found it odd that he only used partially beautiful women that had this ideal woman’s body. I wanted to create my own body prints but in a way that represented beauty to me.
I choice to work alongside a woman who at the time was struggling with their weight and really despised the way they look. I wanted to show her that just because she was big do NOT mean she was not beautiful. The body prints I made of her body looked fantastic! She was really curvy and they looked great! She still really couldn’t see it. When I revisited her she had lost a considerable about of weight so I asked her to do another print over the top to see how her body had changed, we done the print and she was still not happy she still thought she was fat and flabby.
I can to realise then that it didn’t really matter what size she got down to and how thin she got because when she did reach her goal she set herself another one because she was still not happy. And I realised how sad that is really to never appreciate what you have always be wanting more. Also when I saw her she would go “ I wish I looked like you”. ME? This fat, hairy, short thing? I don’t think so. If she was me would she really be happy? Or want to go back to how she was?
